Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone as you’ve never seen them before…

Italian comics artist Paolo Parisi has recently spent some time away from his usual framed narratives, applying his capable hands to some wonderfully expressive portraits. Ladies Sing the Blues is a fairly self-explanatory body of work that features inkily rendered representations of some of the late, great women of early 20th Century R&B. It’s got Ella, Nina and Aretha, not to mention Billie, Bessie and Ma all immortalised in Paolo’s signature style.

Rather excitingly for us, and anyone else in the London area, all of these beautiful drawings will be on display at Gosh Comics from the 11th of August so you can swing by and properly appreciate the brushwork of an illustrative wizard.

Jack Fletcher’s work caught our eye at Edinburgh University’s stand at D&AD New Blood, thanks to its mixture of strange subject matter, bold colours and traditional woodcut technique. His skill with composition makes for clean imagery that fuses tradition with modernity, whether it’s depicting witches or prospectors. Alongside creating gorgeous 2D works, Jack has also turned his skilled hands to creating 3D works from his prints, taking elements from screen prints, cutting them out and layering them into neat narratives. Each work manages to tell a story, and we reckon with skills like this young Jack will go far.

Not only is Rune Fisker one half of the independent animation studio he started with his brother, Benny Box, but when he’s not storyboarding, focusing on character design or working on title sequences for TV and advertising, the Danish Design School graduate is busy building a portfolio of distinctive drawings. Working mostly in black and white with occasional experiments in colour, each of his illustrations is like its own self-contained world where strange, suited figures with shadowed faces struggle through tilting angles and windswept interiors. The Copenhagen-based illustrator’s angular style puts an emphasis on line, playing with geometry and shading for his chaotic but clean compositions, and with their elongated shadows and strangely placeless settings, Rune’s drawings remind me of Italian surrealist Giorgio de Chirico’s haunting paintings.

Sometimes it takes somebody popping an A4-sized frame around a curious arrangement of objects lying on the side to make you realise how picturesque everyday situations can appear. Such is the case for Clotilde Viannay, a Paris-based designer and the art director of L’Incroyable magazine who has taken to illustrating sweet, surreal collections of objects in coloured pencil, in a style reminiscent of assemblage and Dalì-esque landscapes. It’s miles away from her everyday work, but as side projects go Clotilde’s still lifes make for a super charming collection.

Lauren Rolwing’s series of illustrations exploring the work/life balance are pared back but punchy. Commissioned by Wrap magazine for their 11th issue, Lauren uses a pencil to represent illustration and imagines the various ways in which the practise manifests itself in her daily routine. Appearing as a lead-laden toothbrush, a rigid arm for a pair of glasses and nib-topped straw, Lauren’s style is clean, fresh and uncomplicated. The simple treatment of her ideas allows their cleverness to shine through, creating a set of images that are strong both on their own and as a collection.

You know what we’re like, always going all gaga over pretty colours and GIFS like little typing magpies. But we’re not all about a pretty picture over here at It’s Nice That; and neither is designer Evan Grothjan. While we admit we were initially drawn in by his vivid tones and abstract compositions, it turns out there’s a lot more to his Spaces series than crowd-pleasing aesthetics. Instead, the images form an ongoing investigation into the relationship between space and emotion; something Evan’s been interested in since studying animation as part of his Rhode Island School of Design course.

Josh Holinaty’s no stranger to the little virtual pages of It’s Nice That, having first caught our eye for his asinine humour and kept it there with, in Liv Siddall’s words, his “welcoming, friendly style”. Now we return to the Toronto-based illustrator, who has refined his style to create sharper work that feels perceptive, smart and eminently commissionable. His personal work with “quasi self-portraits” is brilliant; and we love the surreal work for WIRED Germany, where he’s created a moon made of cheese. What will the little blighter think of next?